The Season Opens

The University of Pittsburgh's football team was feeling fine. The night before the opening game with West Virginia, they all stowed away a steak dinner and took in a movie, Somebody Up There Likes Me. Next afternoon, it turned out that somebody up there really did like them. Outplayed for most of the game, the Panthers just managed to go home on the long end of a 14-13 score.

Professional Gloom. Pitt was obviously unready for the hefty, hopped-up Mountaineers. West Virginia, on the other hand, had been pointing for Pitt since spring. Coach Art ("Pappy") Lewis had taken a raw squad of untried recruits, drilled them ruthlessly, taught them that they must not play Pitt's brand of power football. Instead, he told them, they must move faster, confuse and frustrate the Panthers' possession type of game.

Pitt Coach John Michelosen had not been loafing either. With professional gloominess he tried to convince his squad of musclemen that they were heading for trouble. His choice of quarterback, he insisted, was still wide open. Pitt was weak at the ends; the Panther squad had lost a total of twelve lettermen.

For all Michelosen's efforts, it was the Mountaineers in their mustard-colored uniforms who finally knocked the Panthers loose from their false pride. All through the first half, West Virginia, led by Quarterback Tricky Mickey Trimarki, dominated the game. After a Pitt fumble they went into the lead, 6-0.

Small Satisfaction. Pitt's potential heroes faded like shooting stars. Hobbled by a bad leg, Left End Joe Walton did next to nothing. Tough Tackle Bob Pollock managed a jarring shot at Mountaineer Fullback Krutko, forced him to fumble and set up the first Pitt score. For the rest of the game he was far from a terror. Pitt's quarterbacks, Darrell Lewis and Corny Salvaterra, made Michelosen's pre-game moaning seem prophetic. But late in the third quarter, Pitt recovered another fumble and scored once more. Again they converted, and that kick meant the difference. The Mountaineers, who also scored again, could not make up the 1-point deficit.

Afterward, Coach Michelosen and his assistants could find some small satisfaction in their narrow escape. Now the Panthers would surely get down to work: their opening game had been less a victory than a bucket of ice water in the face.

Other favorites also got a rude awakening :

P: Faked out of their shoes by the ball-handling of Southern Methodist's Quarterback Charlie Arnold, the Irish of Notre Dame lost their first opening game since 1934. Score: 19-13.

P: Thoroughly unimpressed by Maryland's record of 15 straight victories in regular-season games, Syracuse ran rings around the sluggish Terrapins, 26-12.

P: North Carolina's Jim Tatum made his homecoming debut as head coach, and fell flat on his face as North Carolina State ran all over the Tarheels for the first time in 14 years. Score: 26-6.

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